LG’s office needs to be reinvented

The fact that the job passed to the No. 3 person in line of accession has to tell you something.

It’s a conversation-starter, for sure: a conversation about the role of the lieutenant governor in Hawaii. The state has reached the juncture when starting a discussion about overhauling the job would make a lot of sense.

On Friday it became official: Doug Chin, who previously announced he would step down as attorney general in March to run for Congress, accepted the state’s second-highest executive post. There’s virtually no potential for conflict between holding the lieutenant governor’s job and seeking a congressional seat.

Therein lies the problem: The “LG” job itself, even if it is conflict- free, also seems lacking in definition or purpose. That surely is one reason why Shan Tsutsui resigned at the end of January — giving only two days’ notice — to take a job as a political consultant. And it can explain why neither state Senate President Ron Kouchi nor House Speaker Scott Saiki wanted to relinquish their own positions of power.

Other than serving as the stand-in when the governor is out of state, or out of office altogether, as set out in the state Constitution, there is little power emanating from that side of the Capitol’s fifth floor.

It has been used as a stepping stone to the top job, sure, and three — George Ariyoshi, John Waihee and Ben Cayetano — ultimately were elected governor. But there are more LGs who never made the leap.

Until 1995, the Office of Elections had operated under the jurisdiction of the lieutenant governor’s office. A law was passed to change that in order to remove any possibility of a perceived conflict of interest: An elected official was administering elections in which he or she would have an interest.

Many states make the primary duty of a lieutenant governor (or someone holding an alternative No. 2 position, the secretary of state) to serve as chief elections officer. Absent that role in Hawaii, the LG has little to do as a regular part of the job that pays nearly $152,000 annually.

The state Constitution allows for other duties to be set in statute. Chapter 26 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes establishes that the LG assumes the role formerly performed by the “secretary of Hawaii,” a territorial post that oversaw elections and had custody over public records.

By law, “The duties and functions shall include, but not be limited to, recordation of all legislative and gubernatorial acts, certification of state documents, and maintenance of an official file of rules adopted by state departments.” In addition, the lieutenant governor oversees the state Office of Information Practices.

It certainly sounds like a snooze. That said, the law allows the governor to identify and direct other duties as well. It was Tsutsui’s frequent complaint that Gov. David Ige didn’t give him anything to do.

While the governor really should have made better use of his second-in-command, part of the responsibility lies with the office-holder himself. Other LGs showed more initiative and dug up projects for themselves.

Cayetano’s development of the After-School Plus (A+) is a frequently cited example. And Brian Schatz was tasked to chase down federal funds that could help Hawaii through the Great Recession, when he and former Gov. Neil Abercrombie took office in 2010.

Any changes in the organization of the state’s executive branch likely lie at least four years off. It requires a constitutional amendment, so the job will need filling for at least four years. And there is an ambitious group of candidates already lining up for the privilege of running this fall.

Surely their thoughts on how they could inject some relevance in the office of lieutenant governor should be front and center in their campaign platforms.

Perhaps whoever wins that race could chart their own course to relevance. The taxpayers will be eager to see them try.

But meanwhile there should be a discussion, starting in the current legislative session, to study whether another model would serve Hawaii better.

The LG now serves concurrently as the secretary of state for Hawaii, but perhaps the job could be reconstituted with that as its primary purpose, running elections. That’s still seen as a conflict for an elected officer, but some states make it an appointed position; it’s worth exploring such a conversion here.

Additionally, part of the problem with Hawaii’s system of electing LGs is that he or she must wins the primary as a solo candidate before being added to the party’s general election gubernatorial ticket. The pairing is not always a match made in heaven, exacerbating the dysfunction. Having them run as a ticket in the primary as well could be considered.

There are various approaches tried in other states that a study group, constituted by state resolution, could examine. But lawmakers should definitely take a cue from current events and start the ball rolling. If there’s a leading executive post that gets a pass from two top contenders, there’s very likely something wrong with the job.